What's in Dave's Head

On Saturday, March 24, Donna and I met up with Monica at her house in Silver Spring and we, along with John, Susan and Beth, walked to the nearby Metro station to begin our journey to participate in the March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C. We were in one of a thousand tributaries feeding people into a powerful river of humanity onto Pennsylvania Avenue, along which sit those two most important institutions, the White House and The U.S. Capitol, 1.6 miles apart. Time, Inc. and other news outlets estimated the crowd at 800,000. It was an amazing gathering of diversity – young, middle-aged, elderly, white, black, war veterans, hipsters, men, women. Many, many teachers. It brought to mind the antiwar protests I attended as a teenager – peace signs, posters with slogans from Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a vibe of togetherness and empowerment as we exercised our democratic right to peacefully congregate and advocate for change. Why did we come? To listen to the inspiring sp...

It was an Irish-like day in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore – cold and gray with the threat of rain. We arrived around 10:30 after a bountiful full Irish breakfast party hosted by Eileen and Andrew. Joining them and Corinne were Donna and me, Kate, Ryan and Eric, Pammy and Chris, and Mike and Rose who drove in from New Jersey. The Swanekamps had rented a van and we piled in. Andrew drove to the appointed destination, from whence we walked to our customary first stop, Cardinal, where the bloody Marys flowed. Cardinal changes ownership seemingly with every season, but it remains a welcoming, handsome corner bar in the Baltimore tradition – a long, narrow bar set in a long, narrow rowhouse, with exposed timber rafters and exposed brick walls adorned with pictures of old-time local athletes and a few random rock stars. We played Semi Charmed Live on the jukebox in honor Jack, who couldn’t join us this year. Barb was absent as well, and we missed them both. From Cardinal...

On either side of the imposing steps of the New York City Library on Fifth Avenue and 42 nd Street are two marble lions. The names of the lions, I recently learned from watching Jeopardy!, are Patience and Fortitude. Those seem to be odd attributes for protectors of education, so I went to the library’s website . Their nicknames have changed over the decades. According to the library: “First they were called Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, after The New York Public Library founders John Jacob Astor and James Lenox. Later, they were known as Lady Astor and Lord Lenox (even though they are both male lions). During the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia named them Patience and Fortitude, for the qualities he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression. These names have stood the test of time: Patience still guards the south side of the Library's steps and Fortitude sits unwaveringly to the north.” In our dining room we have a watercolor painting of the libra...

We got dressed for dinner and Ubered to Fiola, a prix-fixe restaurant on Pennsylvania about 10 blocks from the hotel. It’s a fancy restaurant with great food and incredible service. I think there were as many staff as diners, and the dining rooms were full. As we ordered drinks, I leaned over to Donna and said, “Bernie Sanders is here,” and glanced in his direction, over her left shoulder. Wilford Brimley, the Quaker Oats TV guy Now, I see celebrities all the time. At our church in tiny Clarksville, Maryland, for instance, I regularly see: Bill Gates Kevin Costner Joe Girardi      Granny, the cartoon owner of Sylvester the Cat and Tweetie Pie (I know she is the real Granny, because she sometimes gives the readings, and her voice, as well as her countenance, right up to the little white bun on the top of her head, is spot-on) Donna doesn’t share my keen eye for celebrities. At the restaurant, with her usual skepticism in such case...

Part I: A little history about the Willard Hotel Over the long Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, Donna and I celebrated our anniversary by visiting the nation’s capital. It’s a great gift to have common interests – learning about history and art, exploring, and walking around places either familiar or strange.   We have stayed in D.C. for our anniversary before, and the weather is always freezing cold with a biting wind that comes off the Potomac River. Despite the conditions, each day was, as Marge Gunderson, the police investigator in the movie Fargo would say, a beautiful day. We arrived on Saturday a little before noon and checked into the Willard Hotel, one of the great hotels in the city, and maybe of any city. Its history is rich and its location on Pennsylvania Avenue at 14 th Street, wedged next to the Treasury building, which itself sits next to the White House, is prime. Power exudes from these parts.   The Willard opened in the 1840s after a row o...